Protein Powders for Weight Loss

Surely you are thinking that to lose weight the best thing is to take a healthy and varied diet, and I will not take away your reason for that. What we may think differently is the concept of healthy and varied. If you have already read my book One of the most recurrent questions I receive is about the “need” to take protein shakes to lose weight and the answer is a resounding no. It is not necessary to take them; However, today I want to explore the reasons why they are a good idea in general and, above all, what protein to use to lose weight.

If there is a point on which all nutritionists agree is about the need to make enough meals a day. The official recommendation is to make five meals a day and the Isodieta, depending on our needs, recommends even six or seven meals a day. You do not have to be very clever to guess that after four or five days doing six or seven meals a day, the idea of preparing something to eat every three hours can be tiresome. And it is tiresome because for each food we have to use different amounts depending on the proportions of protein and fat they contain, as well as cooking and preparing them.

Quality proteins, complete we replace some of these meals with protein shakes, both problems are ventilated at a stroke. On the one hand, we do not have to adjust different measures, but they are always the same amounts of protein (each one of them) and on the other hand the proportions are always perfect, since it is infinitely easier to calculate 15 grams of low carb protein powders than its equivalent in tuna, egg, veal or cheese. The same goes for fat. Using five or ten grams of olive oil or coconut oil in the shake is much simpler than its fat equivalent in an entrecote, chicken thigh or half an avocado.

Nor am I saying that we focus on taking only shakes; Not at all. I have started by saying that the best thing to lose weight is to have a healthy and varied diet, and little varied would be if we only took shakes, even if we prepared them in a different way. When I made 7 meals a day, at least 3 of those meals were shakes. For me, it was a simple and economical way to make all the meals I needed. Yes, economic, you read well. Soon I will get there.

But there is such a wide variety in the market, what is the best protein to lose weight? How to choose a protein to lose weight among all existing?When choosing a suitable protein powder to lose weight we must take into account several factors. The first, which is slow assimilation. In other words, it is a protein that the body takes a while to assimilate so that the contribution of nutrients to our blood is continuous and moderate.

We do not need to generate excess proteins that then end up in the urine. On the contrary, we seek that 100% of the protein that we take is assimilated in an orderly manner. Some proteins on the market have such a small molecular weight and/or assimilate with such speed that they end up generating peaks in the blood and are eliminated in the urine.

The second aspect to keep in mind is that the protein is complete, that is, that it has all the amino acids necessary for our body and, if possible, in the right amounts. I want to remember that it is about losing weight, not about malnutrition, and for that, you have to take all the essential amino acids and, if possible, in the right proportions. Proteins that are deficient in one or more amino acids are useless because when an essential amino acid is depleted, the rest can become unusable when a series of metabolic functions are limited due to the lack of the first. That’s why we talk about essential amino acids and limiting amino acids, something that is perfectly explained in the book La Isodieta by the way. Some proteins on the market are not complete and, if they are,

Third, to lose weight it is necessary to use a protein that is high in concentration and, above all, that does not carry carbohydrates. It would be pretty stupid on our part if we made a diet low in carbohydrates, depriving us of some foods that we may want from time to time, and, between hours, we used a protein that carries all those carbohydrates that we have rejected in our previous meals. On the other hand, when using a protein of high concentration we make sure that the compound that we are using only carries protein and little else. Some proteins on the market have concentrations as low as 60%, the rest being in many cases pure and hard carbohydrates.

Slimming protein shake last but not least, if we want to lose weight fat freezing we need to use a versatile protein that dissolves easily, emulsifies correctly and has a pleasant taste. If the protein we choose does not have these characteristics, we will end up not using it and abandon it in any drawer because we do not want to take it.

Well, with these characteristics, I only know a protein of proven quality, which is the one formulated by Jaime Brugos and manufactured specifically for the Isodieta, called Vitality 95. It is a protein based on Calcium Caseinate, that is, a protein of slow assimilation as we saw in the first point. Its molecules are large and it takes time for the organism to assimilate, therefore, its duration in our blood is high and does not produce peaks.